Simple Allergen-Free Recipes On a Budget

Beef

“This is the best brisket I’ve ever eaten, and I’m 50 years old!” That’s what a guest said when I served this slow cooker barbecue beef brisket earlier this week. Hop on over to Stacy Makes Cents to see the recipe.

You know how you see a recipe and you know you’re going to love it before you even try it? That’s how it was when I saw this recipe at Mom’s Crazy Cooking. I have a thing for caramelized onion (try this Orange, Honey and Cumin Roasted Chicken with caramelized onions over mashed potatoes), and my husband loves a tender, falling apart roast. So I knew this recipe was going to be a hit.

There’s a sweet Granny at our church, who often brings a big pot of macaroni noodles with tomato sauce and ground beef to church potluck meals. It’s somewhat similar to spaghetti without the strong Italian seasonings and somewhat like beefy mac in a stew form. Kids devour it.

She calls this meal Goulash. I always thought Goulash was a Hungarian dish, but apparently there is American Goulash as well. Google tells me that in some regions this dish is called American Chop Suey!

I was feeling a little under the weather this weekend. When lunchtime sneaked up on me, I needed to fix something simple. I found a package of ground beef in the fridge and sprouting potatoes in the pantry. Ground beef hash it was.

Ground beef hash is a frugal, kid and allergy friendly meal can be thrown together quickly. The secret to good hash is to season it liberally, otherwise it can be rather bland.

Some of the kids topped their ground beef hash with cheese and some of them topped it with ketchup. Three out of four of them had two helpings.

Cool weather got you looking for comfort food? Chunky beef stew with carrots and onions served on top of mashed potatoes is sure to satisfy. Throw the ingredients in the crockpot and go about your business for the day. When you are ready to eat, whip up your favorite mashed potatoes and enjoy this hearty meal.

Ingredients:

2 lbs Stew Meat

1 Small Onion, diced

Carrots (I used 1/2 bag of frozen carrots but fresh would be even better.)

I have enjoyed sloppy joes since the early days of marriage when I didn’t know how to cook anything unless it came out of a box or can. When I made a commitment to limit high fructose corn syrup in our families diet, I had to say goodbye to my friend Manwich.

I have tried several homemade recipes that were OK, but they just didn’t do it for me. Then I found this recipe: Sloppy Joes…The Real Food Way. I love the title. I love the recipe. My search for a good homemade sloppy joe recipe has ended.

While there are bold and spicy sloppy joes, I prefer sweet ones. This recipe satisfies my sweet tooth. It’s super easy to throw together and I always have the ingredients on hand.

I tweaked the recipe a bit to simplify it even more. I also added a can of red beans to stretch the meal a bit. (You can read how I also do this in my spaghetti sauce here.)

Homemade Sloppy Joes

Ingredients:

1 lb Ground Beef

1/2 cup Bell Pepper, chopped (optional)

1/2 cup Onion, chopped

4 Garlic Cloves, pressed or minced

1 14.5 oz can of Red Beans, drained and rinsed (optional)

5 Tbsp Tomato Paste

1 cup Broth

1/2 cup Honey

2 Tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar

1 Tbsp Tamari Sauce (Soy-free recipes here and here or leave it out and extra salt)

1/2 Tbsp Chile Powder

1 tsp Ground Mustard

Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions:

In a skillet cook ground beef until brown.

Add peppers, onions and garlic and cook until soft.

Add the remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the sauce thickens.

Tonight we tried our zucchini boats with spaghetti sauce. I found the spaghetti boats to be more flavorful than the cheeseburger boats. My kids couldn’t decide which recipe they preferred. Which recipe should you prepare? I guess whatever floats your boat!

Getting children to eat green and slimy vegetables can be a challenge. Sometimes all you need is a toothpick and a piece of paper to build enthusiasm. My little ones were actually excited to try these. They got 2 thumbs up from everyone but the youngest. She was able to eat them once we covered them with ketchup.

I love a truly from scratch sauce with fresh tomatoes from my garden. In fact, I’ll be posting my favorite garden fresh sauce recipe this summer. But this time of year, I am happy to compromise with this sauce. It tastes way better than any store bought sauce I’ve tried.

Store bought spaghetti sauce contain ingredients like corn syrup and “natural flavors” which we all know can mean just about anything, including MSG. It can also be difficult for those of us dealing with allergies to find a jar of sauce that does not contain cheese and soy.

I am thrilled to share with you my secret to making 5 jars of spaghetti sauce in 5 minutes for around $3! I buy the large can of tomato sauce at Sam’s (or Costco) for $2.33. I also buy the spices in bulk at Sam’s or Costco.

The hardest part of this recipe is opening the large can! A regular electric opener won’t work. I use a manual can opener. Once I have the can open, I add the spices directly to the can and mix with a cheap immersion blender (like this one). That’s it! It’s ready to be added to cooked ground meat or frozen for later.

But, you ask, doesn’t spaghetti sauce need to simmer? I used to simmer it before adding it to the jars but I find that cooking the sauce with ground meat is enough simmering time to combine the flavors.

Bella enjoys this sauce over Mrs. Leeper’s Rice Shapes For Kids. I have enjoyed this sauce in spaghetti, ravioli and lasagna. We are meat sauce people. If you prefer to go vegetarian, you probably need to add olive oil. Becca wrote this in the comment section:

As a vegetarian, I have to say: Adding olive oil will not give you the good flavor of adding something cooked in the oil. This is really easy to do with kale, even if it is frozen, because it cooks so fast–give it 3 minutes in olive oil in the bottom of the pot, maybe with a clove of crushed garlic or some bits of onion, and then add the sauce and heat it up. Kale is crazily nutritious and cheap, too!

As a side note, my family of six really needs two pounds of beef in their spaghetti sauce to fill them up. I buy organic, grass-fed beef from a local farmer which is a little pricier than store bought beef. I can’t stand to use two pounds of beef in one meal, so I add a can of rinsed black beans to stretch the beef. At first my kids acted like I was torturing them with beans, but they have gotten used to it. If you want to try adding beans, don’t blame me if your kids won’t eat their dinner!